Japanese Inspired Vegetable Soup

I’ve finally gotten over my cold, but unfortunately passed it on to Sam, so we’re still eating lots of soup, convinced of its healing properties. Last night I made a Japanese-inspired vegetable soup. I had some extra time, and wanted to start from a broth that was richer and more complex than my standard vegetable broth, so I began by first roasting some chopped carrots, celery, parsnip, turnip, onion, and garlic with a bit of sesame oil. As those roasted, I filled a pot with water, and added some dried wakame seaweed, letting it rehydrate, and flavor the water. I let some firm tofu drain beneath the weight of a kettle filled with water, and chopped garlic, ginger, serranos, bok choy, carrots, spinach, shitakes, thai basil, cilantro, and scallions.

When I saw that the seaweed had rehydrated, I placed it over a medium flame, and added a generous tablespoon of shiro miso, a dash of fish sauce, and a dash of bragg’s liquid aminos. When the miso dissolved, I removed my vegetables from the oven, placed them in the steamer basket that fits in my pot. I put the entire thing into the broth, and let it cook on medium-low heat for about 45 minutes. It could have gone even longer, but I was beginning to get hungry. (Generally I recommend making a broth ahead of time, so that you have it on hand for soups, risotto, etc.) I removed the steamer basket, and discarded the vegetables. I placed rinsed and drained tofu noodles back into the steamer basket, and returned it to the broth for about 5 minutes.

As the broth simmered and the noodles cooked, I cooked the pressed tofu and shitakes in a skillet with sesame oil, soy sauce, chopped ginger, garlic, and red pepper. After I’d removed the basket of steamer basket with noodles from the broth and set them aside, I added the cooked tofu and shitakes to the pot, as well as the bok choy, spinach, and carrots that I’d chopped. I let these cook for just a minute or so, and began to assemble the soup bowls. I placed noodles in each bowl, and then covered them with spoonfuls of the soup, being sure to include plenty of vegetables. I topped each bowl with bean sprouts and the basil, cilantro, serranos and scallions I’d chopped, and served them with additional soy sauce and siracha– a delicious, healthy, and hopefully healing meal.

Japanese Inspired Vegetable Soup

This soup admittedly has a lot of ingredients. Some can certainly be omitted, or something else can be substituted if you aren’t able to find something or don’t have it on hand. For example, I always have fish sauce and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos in my pantry, but you could just use soy sauce, experiment with worcestershire sauce, and/or just use extra garlic and salt for flavor. But the vegetables do go a long way, and small quantities of them are not prohibitively expensive. I also made liberal use of my steamer basket, submerging it entirely in the water that filled my stockpot, making it easy to remove vegetables from the broth, and cook noodles without need for additional pots and a separate colander.

For broth:

INGREDIENTS

A mixture of chopped vegetables; can include odds and ends, tops of things, etc. (I used celery, carrots, a turnip, part of a parsnip, half an onion, some whole, smashed garlic cloves, and parsley)

Sesame oil

1/4 cup Dried wakame seaweed flakes

1 tablespoon shiso miso paste

Sliced garlic

Fish sauce (optional)

Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

Heat the oven to 425. Toss the chopped vegetables with some sesame oil and place on a pan for about an hour, or until they’ve browned. (Don’t worry about preheating the oven. It’s ok to let them warm up as the oven does.)

Fill a stock pot with water, and add dried wakame seaweed flakes. Let sit for 10 minutes or so. (If making broth ahead of time, you may want to now drain these and reserve for later use. Otherwise, leave in.) Place the pot on medium heat, and add miso paste, sliced garlic, fish sauce, and liquid aminos. Let simmer.

When the roasted vegetables are ready, place in a steamer or pasta basket, and submerge in the stock pot. Let simmer for at least 45 minutes, or up to one and a half hours. Remove the vegetables from the broth and discard. Use broth as base for soup.

Place the noodles in a steamer or pasta basket. Place the broth on high heat, and submerge the basket for 3-5 minutes or until cooked. Remove from broth and set aside.

Place a skillet over medium-high heat. Just cover the bottom with sesame oil. Add soy sauce, garlic, ginger and red pepper and cook for about two minutes. Add tofu and mushrooms and coat with oil mixture. Add additional soy sauce if necessary. Cook for three to five minutes. Add mixture to broth.

3 thoughts on “Japanese Inspired Vegetable Soup”

What a lovely soup – Japanese ingredients are a favourite of mine. And I know this is not directly related, but I’ve just taken a squinny at your Strycker Studio site – after discovering (and commenting on) your blog – and, as there’s nowhere to comment on the work there, I feel compelled to do so here as I find it such a pleasure. It’s not often I find art work I genuinely care for on the net. The Flesh of Language is beautiful (and I love the title), Metamorphosis a great development and continuum, and I particularly like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn series and the On Blue series. Your collaborative work with Samuel Sherman has an open, fun, sometimes childlike quality. I totally get where you’re at with your statement…echoes of my own sentiment, therefore relativity…

Me, I hope it’s kosher that I’ve brought your art into your kitchen – I imagine your cooking is some kind of art itself in any case. We can all interact and make our own and be a part of your moment. It feels to me that you live life fully.

Thanks so much for your comments, pegs. I definitely do consider cooking to be another creative outlet. It’s just another medium for making, and I’ve recently been thinking about how I might bring the the two together in some of my own projects. Thanks for taking the time to look at this blog, and my artist website.